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			<h1>Cultural relativism</h1>
			<p>Written in <span title="Ethics and Social Responsibility">PHIL 1404</span> of <a href="http://www.uopeople.edu/">University of the People</a>, finalized on 2017-02-15</p>
		</header>
<p>
	Different cultures have different moral frameworks; there is no singular moral standard.
	Descriptive moral relativism is the recognition of this fact.
	However, that doesn&apos;t mean that all actions must be measured according to the culture of the actor (Chokr, n.d.).
	It simply means that each culture will view the actions of the same individual in a different light.
	In this way, it contradicts traditional ethical theories, as traditional ethical theories assert that there is one true way to measure the ethics of an action.
	Adding even further contradiction is normative moral relativism.
	Normative moral relativism asserts that we cannot judge an action at all until we know the ethical system used by the culture in which the action was carried out (Chokr, n.d.).
	That is to say, the same action carried out in different places and times needs to be evaluated and judged differently.
	It doesn&apos;t matter what the judge&apos;s moral code is, it matters what the moral code of the actor&apos;s culture is.
</p>
<p>
	Normative moral relativism would imply then that people that are trying to fix the problems in a culture are in the wrong.
	After all, they&apos;re acting contrary to the culture of the region that they&apos;re in.
	On the other hand, descriptive moral relativism would only say that the actions of these people would be bad according to the old culture and good according to the new culture, assuming that the attempt at change was successful.
</p>
<p>
	Cultural relativism ties into normative moral relativism, saying that the objectively correct thing to do is the thing that the actor&apos;s culture believes to be the right thing to do (Chokr, n.d.).
	Of course, this asserts that that there even <strong>*is*</strong> an objectively-right thing to do, which is questionable at best.
	In any case, acceptance of cultural relativism is the rejection of the concept that there is a single set of ethical rules that can govern everyone; by accepting cultural relativism, you&apos;re rejecting the foundation of traditional ethical theories (Brusseau, n.d.).
</p>
<h2>Traffic &quot;tickets&quot; in Mexico City</h2>
<p>
	The process of getting and paying off traffic tickets in Mexico City is very different than it is in other countries.
	In fact, the way in which the system works there borders on corruption.
	Instead of actually writing up citations and handing out tickets, the police officers prompt the infracting party to pay (in a subtle way, of course), and the offender bribes the officer (Brusseau, n.d.).
	At that point, no further action is taken by either party and no actual ticket-writing happens.
	There&apos;s pretty much an unspoken agreement that this is just how things work.
</p>
<p>
	The main values associated with this practice would probably be speed, privacy, and low cost.
	The advantages stem from these values.
	From the offender&apos;s perspective, the &quot;tickets&quot; are paid off right away.
	There&apos;s no public record of the infraction, so their driving record remains spotless.
	And because the ticket money isn&apos;t sent through the legal system, administrative markup is zero.
	For the officers, the money reaches them right away.
	They don&apos;t have to wait for the system to process it and give them their cut.
	They also probably get more money from the &quot;ticket&quot;, as officers would see next to nothing as far as funds from real, legal tickets.
	In terms of happiness and utility, this works out better for both the officer and the offender, making it easily defendable from a utilitarian standpoint.
</p>
<h2>Traffic tickets in the United States</h2>
<p>
	Traffic laws in my country vary by state.
	I&apos;m also not a motorist, instead doing all my commuting by walking or by bicycle.
	However, my understanding is that typically, the officer will ask for the driver&apos;s car registration and <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr>.
	This removes all anonymity.
	An actual citation is written up and the infraction goes on the driver&apos;s public record.
	At that point, the offender has two options: they can either just pay the ticket (they pay the city, not the officer) or they can get a hearing and go to court.
	Getting a hearing is a better idea.
	If the offender pleads guilty, they still have to pay the fine, but their fine is often reduced.
	If they plead innocent, evidence will be shown against them proving that the ticket was just.
	If it cannot be proven, they get off the hook, but I think that most tickets are probably given on provable grounds.
</p>
<p>
	I think that the main values here are prevention and honesty.
	The accepting of bribes is a dishonest practice, and officers here don&apos;t tend to do it.
	That&apos;s not to say that I think that our officers are more honest, just that they fear the consequences of dishonesty more.
	If an officer were caught taking bribes here, their employment could be terminated.
	Additionally, officers that take these bribes in Mexico City have incentive to go after innocent people as well as people that actually broke the law, as the more people that they target, the more money that they make.
	As for prevention, higher fines and public records keep people from being as likely to commit traffic violations.
	I&apos;m not sure that the purpose of a traffic ticket is to help fund the government or the officers.
	I think that the point of the heavy fine levied in the form of a traffic ticket, as well as the placing of the violation on your driving record, is to make people think twice before breaking traffic laws.
	While the lower cost of bribes is nice for offenders, it&apos;s not as nice for law-abiders.
	Drivers are less likely to be careful when the consequences are perceived to be smaller.
	This probably especially keeps the number of repeat offenders down.
	Prevention helps keep all of us safer.
	Again, utilitarianism makes a good argument here for our ticket system, but duty-based ethics do as well.
	It is our duty to follow the laws, even the ones that only come into effect after having broken other laws.
</p>
<h2>An argument for cultural relativism</h2>
<p>
	In both cases, different values are emphasized.
	However, all of the mentioned values seem positive.
	Do we honestly have a way to decide that the values that one culture emphasize are any more important than the values emphasized by another?
	The systems offered by both cultures each have their advantages, as discussed above.
	They also have their down sides.
	In the Mexican system, corruption and smaller penalties are the main problems.
	In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Names_for_United_States_citizens#Alternative_terms">United Statesian</a> system, heavy administrative markup is probably the biggest problem.
	The fact is though, we have no concrete and objective way to compare the two cultures and figure out which ticketing system is truly ideal in all cases.
	Instead, which is right seems to depend on the populace.
	That hints that cultural relativism may be the key to analyzing the situation.
</p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>
	Am I convinced that cultural relativism is the answer though?
	Not really.
	In a way, I strongly agree with the concept of cultural relativism.
	Because I believe that all morality is subjective, I necessarily must believe that all cultures are equally correct, on a theoretical level.
	After all, moral rules are nothing more than pervasive opinions about what should and should not happen (Brusseau, n.d.).
	However, in practice, I do have a strong sense of morality and I don&apos;t tolerate that which I view as unjust.
	I consider myself to be open-minded, which does require that I take a specific stance, not just say that everyone is right (Chokr, n.d.).
	Without a specific stance, I can&apos;t self-evaluate and change.
	There have been several cases in which I have drastically changed my general moral stance about the world.
	Each time, I&apos;ve thought of my former self as just a bit evil and have been glad not to be that former self any more.
</p>
<p>
	There are also things about cultural relativism that I cannot agree with.
	Because of this, I cannot agree with cultural relativism as a whole.
	For example, cultural relativity states that what is judged as the correct action by a given culture is the <strong>*objectively correct*</strong> action.
	I cannot believe (at least in my current view of ethics and morals) that an objectively correct action can even exist.
	Furthermore, it defends backwards ideas in some cases, such as the oppression of certain groups (Chokr, n.d.), both minority and otherwise.
	As someone that wants freedom for all, I can&apos;t stand by a system that takes away the freedom of others based on arbitrary factors such as race, sex, gender, and/or sexual orientation.
	No argument is going to convince me until that particular problem (among other problems) can be addressed by the proposed system.
	Cultural relativism lacks the ability to address that problem in a positive way.
	Additionally, cultural relativism attempts to define the &quot;objectively correct&quot; morality, but defines it based on the mindset (culture) of the people of the group that the actor is in.
	When morality is defined differently for different people, as cultural relativism defines it, I can&apos;t see that as anything other than subjective.
	Objective morality, if it even exists, would not be based on the individual views of different cultures; objective morality would be the same for everyone.
	It stands to reason then that if there exists an objective morality, some cultures are dead wrong in their view of it.
	This contradicts cultural relativism&apos;s premise.
	To be clear, I don&apos;t think that we should give up on morality.
	It&apos;s a very useful tool.
	However, trying to claim that morality can in any way be objective, as is claimed by cultural relativism, is a sham.
</p>
<p>
	On the other hand, culturalist ethics serve as a viable tool where cultural relativism does not.
	Culturalists understand that moral rules exist only in the cultures in which they are present; other cultures may or may not share those morals and values (Brusseau, n.d.).
	In many cases, it can be counterproductive to use culturalist ethics, as it encourages acting as the locals do instead of looking for a best outcome.
	However, for smaller issues, culturalist ethics provide a realistic and useful way to look at things.
	For example, you probably wouldn&apos;t want to apply culturalist ethics to topics such as slavery and murder, but for the issue of the way in which traffic violations are dealt with, it allows for the bending of rules that don&apos;t really matter so much.
	There&apos;s only so much time and energy that we have.
	Cultural ethics allows us to follow the crowd instead of making decisions about what is right ourselves.
	This is not a one-size-fits-all tool though, and should only be used for trivial issues that aren&apos;t worth the energy that it would take to fight against.
	Eventually, if the larger ethical issues get solved, we will have time and energy to put into fine-tunning solutions to small issues, such as those surrounding traffic violations.
</p>
<div class="APA_references">
	<h2>References:</h2>
	<p>
		Brusseau, J. (n.d.). Case Studies. Retrieved from <a href="http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s08-08-case-studies.html"><code>http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s08-08-case-studies.html</code></a>
	</p>

	<p>
		Brusseau, J. (n.d.). Cultural Ethics. Retrieved from <a href="http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s08-03-cultural-ethics.html"><code>http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s08-03-cultural-ethics.html</code></a>
	</p>

	<p>
		Brusseau, J. (n.d.). What Is Cultural Relativism? Retrieved from <a href="http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s08-01-what-is-cultural-relativism.html"><code>http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s08-01-what-is-cultural-relativism.html</code></a>
	</p>

	<p>
		Chokr, N. N. (n.d.). Who is (not) afraid of (cultural) relativism? Retrieved from <a href="https://traces.revues.org/401"><code>https://traces.revues.org/401</code></a>
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